Blast this pen!!

[Jory]

This isn't suck so much as amusement. The pens we have at work don't like to write on our receipt paper, so every so often, I have to write on regular paper to get the ink flowing.

Of course, everyone tells me that my pens don't work and I need a new one, but the other wonderful thing at work is that there's pretty much a war over the pens. Everyone goes to everyone else's checkstands to steal any and all of the following: Pens, Paper Towels, and Spray Cleaner.

I'll steal pens from the bank if I'm near them, cause their pens work super well. But I digress...

This woman runs her card as credit, so I give her the signature paper, and she starts to write. It doesn't work, so I say 'Can I see that?' And she starts violently shaking my pen up and down a la Cruella Deville style, and I can just hear her 'Blast this pen! Blast this wretched wretched pen!!' And that was my entertainment for the night. ^_^

Of course, the pen still didn't work, so she hands it to me, and I scribble on my scratch paper and give it back. All done. Not much suck in my four hour shift. PFDs come out tomorrow, and I get to work the whooollle weekend. Yay me. I'm sure my list of suck will grow tremendously in the upcoming days.

[nomorecarts]

my store is the same with pens/paper towels/spray cleaner. luckily our registers have decals with the number on them that works great for the pens to start working on

[Arshtat]

We have the same problem with our receipt paper! When you're stuck on the register for hours at a time, it's maddening to have every single customer throw the pen back at you and whine, "This pen doesn't work!" Then you have to find another pen, scribble on another piece of paper, and put another piece of paper under the credit slip they're signing, all while hurriedly trying to explain that the receipt paper is glossy and doesn't work well with the pens. FAIL.
Unless, of course, you have a nice felt-tip pen, which pwnz all.

[Nashida]

Gonna be completely random, but try putting a foam mat or something under the receipt. Our paper is the same way, but customers have found the odd foam mats we have seem to help get the ink going (pressure sensitive, maybe?)

[FenigDurak]

If it's the thermal paper, normal cheap ball point pens seem to have a little issue with it. Sounds like your method to fix it works well enough, but just in case it doesn't, gel pens (I hate to admit to this as I really dislike gel pens) were pretty much designed to work on the thermal paper.

[Jory]

Sometimes, I'll carry my own pen (since it can be impossible to find any others), but I'm reluctant to do so, because my customers like to walk away with the pens. It's kind of natural, and I do it myself, so I always keep my eye on them. This one lady had put one of our pens in her purse, in a specific holder designed for pens. o_O That's a little too absent...

[KhirasHY]

We're good with pens, but everyone here steals sticky notes and scotch tape. I keep mine locked up in a safe now, since there are literally occasional bands of marauders in our back hallways stealing office supplies from one another.

This is actually fairly amusing, since one person walking around with supplies in hand instantly makes 8-9 people lock their desk drawers

[Seraph]

Gonna be completely random, but try putting a foam mat or something under the receipt. Our paper is the same way, but customers have found the odd foam mats we have seem to help get the ink going (pressure sensitive, maybe?)

We did the same in a bookstore I used to work at. It was either that, or stick one of BAM's fiftykajillion uggy newsletters underneath it.

Seriously...why does BAM make those newsletters anyways....nobody CARED about them...in fact they didn't care about US... /babble

[Chromatix]

Thermal paper is normally used for receipts because it means there's only one consumable to replace (the paper, no ink), and it (almost) always gives a very clear print.

Unfortunately, thermal paper is also very smooth, and therefore low-friction. And yes, this does trip up your average Biro.

The way a Biro works, is that the ink gets rubbed off the outside end of the tiny ball, while the ball turns and carries a layer of fresh ink around with it. The ink, in turn, lubricates the ball. But the thermal paper only has enough friction to take the ink off the ball, not to (reliably) rotate the ball itself, so the ball runs dry. When you scribble on normal paper, the ball turns and there you have ink again.

By putting the receipt on a softer surface, the groove caused by writing causes more paper to be in contact with the ball. This gives it enough friction to get moving, and thus replenish the ink.

Gel pens probably have stickier ink, which helps to drag the ball around as it leaves. This might be why they work better on receipts.

Felt tips also work well, because they only have to deliver ink, not keep a ball rolling as well. However they are more fragile than a ball-point pen, which is bad news for public use.

[powerboy]

Had that problem at my old job.

[Dave1982]

I use a Fisher Space Pen now, which writes on just about anything.

However, it doesn't write reliably on Xerox Phaser printouts, nor does anything else. MUCH worse than thermal paper......damned wax-based ink. I hate the Xerox Phaser.

[SilverOrb]

I got majorly annoyed with customers stealing my pen while I worked at the Pit of Hell. My solution was to use the biggest pen I could find. Remember those electric pens that would squiggle as you write? Yep. It was THAT big. No one ever walked off with THAT baby

[Wembley]

I got majorly annoyed with customers stealing my pen while I worked at the Pit of Hell. My solution was to use the biggest pen I could find. Remember those electric pens that would squiggle as you write? Yep. It was THAT big. No one ever walked off with THAT baby

If I still worked retail, I'd get a cheap fountain pen - or a quill and ink bottle

-Wembley